comicadventuresfandomcom-20200215-history
2012-05-25 - Heroes Crisis: Beware the Jabberwock
One minute, Kara was flying over Metropolis with Vanguard. Then that 'nothingness' appeared in the middle of the air. When Vanguard approached to investigate, the tendrils grabbed him, the nothingness grew and sucked him in. Grabbing his hand so she could pull him out... it doesn't have the desired effect, as the tendrils instead pull HER in as well. Then darkness .... when it clears, her hand is grabbing at nothing, and she's in a very, VERY odd ... twisted... place. a shoefly buzzes past just before the Kryptonian girl stumbles into the area, almost hitting the ground before righting herself. "What in Rao...." she says, looking around, especially when she sees a cat disappear, leaving only a smile in its wake. Okay, so maybe she DOES say that sometimes. Kara's entrance, however, is not the most unusual way of entering this place. Not by a longshot. At the same time, Alex appears as well. One second, he was in the Danger Room, working out on a level 8 difficulty attack. He was just firing a plasma blast at a concentric circle of tendrils surrounding him.... when suddenly he's no longer in the Danger room, and his blast instead hits Kara. Her hands go up, and she gets knocked backwards. A lot of the surrounding forest, on the other hand, catches fire or gets knocked down. And yet it's not the oddest entrance. Lady Blackhawk then suddenly is there, bumping into Alex as she had JUST relieved a mugger of his gun and wallet! But at least that's not as odd as Natasha's entrance with a cheesy romance novel an some snack food. Oh.... and she's in her pajamas. But the winner for unusual entrances into the Labyrinth has to be X-Institute student code-named Jellybean, as a bathtub's worth of water appears out of nowhere about 4 feet off the ground and falls down into a large, bathtub-shaped flower. Inside the 'tub' is a lot of bubbles, and a rather startled Candi. And a rubber ducky. Natasha is there, about to read through Anne Rice's 'Lestat' as she just -stares-. Looking about and her jaw drops at just where the.. She appeared!? Her first move is to reach over for the couch cushion where she keeps a spare outfit just in case, starting to rapidly pull it on, then assuming she has the time to go ahead and grab her pistol, some grenades, and lock her Widow's Bites into place along with her equipment belt. She also keeps the book. Kara Zor-El stumbles in from the air, righting herself so she can land on the ground instead of fall to it, her sentence ending in "-rick!?" (it began with "Ded-!"). Of course, she doesn't have time to gather her surroundings before she's blasted by an immense, concentric plasma blast. Havok aka Alex, at first thought that Bobby Drake had messed with his program again and was projecting a holographic surrounding. "Dammit, Bobby!" He yells..and then he notices the other people with him. He looks at Nat in her pajamas and actually smirks just a little bit. Then there's Candi in the tub..he quickly turns away from that image. And then there's Blackhawk and Kara, two people he's never seen before. He frowns. "Creek...that sonofabitch..." He growls a bit under his breath. "Put my damend program back like it was!" The water splashes into the 'flower tub' and suds fly everywhere, though luckily for Candi enough decide to stay behind to keep her PG-13. "Holy fu**!" She clutches at the sides of the tub as if expecting it to go falling or flying, or otherwise behaving like something other than a tub. Her hair stands out to full extent, looking like a black and red corona of distraight tentacles. Yes, tentacles that look as frightened as the young lady who they belong to. "Mommy!" Kara Zor-El says, "Lady B's next. Then the pose order is NPCs (if any), Kara, Natasha, Alex, Candi, Lady B." "Oh for..." Lady B tucks the wallet into her...well...yeah, her costume has pockets. Sort of. She keeps the gun out, turning around. What the heck is going on here...other than the person in the bath tub with the tentacles. Whom she doesn't know. "Somebody escaped from Arkham and filled the city with PCP, didn't they." Quick gathering of where she is after the blast hit Kara. Didn't hurt per se, but it was really powerful. When you get pulled into an unfamiliar place with flying shoes, disappearing cats, and everything looks all twisted and warped. THEN the first thing that happens is someone blasts you with some sort of energy blast? Usually means you've been pulled into a trap by the person shooting at you - so the first thing she's doing is flying up to the attacker to grab him, yanking him off the ground and yelling "What did you do with the guy who was with me?!" Then she does take a moment to look around. More confused now. Woman in pajamas... pulling out a gun and outfit from the cushions. Lady Blackhawk? Did they trap Zinda also? And what's with the naked girl in the bubblebath??? So she pauses and says, "Um..... what's going on?" A bit calmer, but 10 times more confused. And still gripping Alex by the neck and arm. Natasha whirls around and then sees Alex being grabbed over by the flying woman in.. A cheerleader's set of bloomers. Mutters a word in Yiddish that's of universal significance in two letters. "Oy." She whips out her pistol to point it at Supergirl, and calls out, "Cheerleader. Let the womanizer down. Slowly." She amends after a moment, "That does not mean drop him from a height." Alex Summers still has no idea what is going on. He's grabbed up by Kara and begins struggling. "I didn't do anything, lady. I was minding my own business when these back tendril things grabbed me in the middle of my workout. Now LET ME GO." He aims a blast towards her face. Candi hunkers down in her tub, but after a moment she gets an idea of what is going on and she hops out, ignoring her bubbly nudity. Thankfully those suds seem to work for the comics code authority and cover up the naughty parts, "Hey! You! Blondie! Put down my teacher and noone gets hurt!" She points a finger like a gun at Kara, and a pink bubble pops into existence in front of it, glowing a pretty soft pink. Scary! "Don't bother," Zinda informs Natasha. "She's bulletproof." She points the gun at the ground, not wanting to seem threatening. She's not sure *why* Supergirl and Alex are fighting, mind. Or whether they're there. Or who this other woman is. Kara Zor-El frowns at Alex. "That blast didn't work the first time when I wasn't ready. You think it'll work this time? Who are you?" She looks back at the girl pointing the gun at her. And the other girl pointing a... er... pink gun at her. Seriously, supervillains really need to watch the news if they haven't learned that if wearing the S, guns are probably not that much of a threat. "Cheerleader?" she responds to Natasha, then looks at her PJs. "You know.... if I were you I wouldnt be commenting about fashion." She removes one hand from Alex's arm though so she's just holding him with the other hand, looking at Candi and Natasha. "Seriously, I want answers." She looks down at the only familiar face. "Zinda? Please tell me you know who these people are and why they pulled us in here and attacked?" Natasha keeps her guns up and over at Kara, not lowering them though she can guess. "Still the same, put him down." She goes on and keeps the guns aimed up at Kara, but as she sees Lady Blackhawk lowering her's.. SHe does as well a moment later. One does not pick fights with the flying parahumans after all. Glancign over at Zinda analytically then as she holsters her weapons in her bodysuit. "So, I take it you hvae no clue either where we are?" Alex Summers tries to calm down. "So I see. You speak to me as though I'm supposed to know who you are. Actually, I don't even know WHAT you are. So how about you put me down, and we'll figure all of this out. Besides, if it didn't hurt why are you high-strung?" "No clue. Let's worry about where we are first. And Kara...please put him down. I don't think he plans on shooting you again." As long as he doesn't shoot *Zinda*, they shouldn't have a problem anyway. Her costume (which rather resembles something a strip-o-gram might wear - Gothamites) is at least neat. "And whether we can find some clothes for certain people." The longer you stand up with suds as your only clothing, the less clothing you have, and Candi didn't start with much. The suds run down her dark skinned body as she gets more visibly upset, "Let him go! He is a good guy! He's my teacher and don't you hurt him!" She isn't about to put away her bubble, as useless as it is, as long as Alex is being held like that. "Let him GO!" A bit shrill, more than a bit upset and scared, Candi edges forward to get closer to Kara and Alex. Kara Zor-El looks first at Alex. "Maybe because I don't like it when people shoot bursts of... what... plasma or something?... at me." Then between Natasha, Candi, and Lady Blackhawk. And Alex has no idea who she is. Odd, given her recent bad press, but okay. It's not like she's been around for a long time like Kal. Okay, but he doesn't even recognize the S, which is more odd than not recognizing her. When Natasha puts down her weapon and Zinda asks her to put Alex down, the combination makes her doubt her initial assessment. She floats back down to the ground and lets go of Alex's throat. Still a little perturbed about Candi though. "Um.... yeah okay so... yeah." She finally just crosses her arms. "Zinda, did you see Vanguard? He got pulled into this black... thing." Natasha's mind sorts over things. Black.. Thing.. "Was it some sort of vortex? Or more o fa general blackness that was swelling up everywhere? Or more of a sieve that just came out of nowehre like soem sort of singularity?" These questions are peppered up and over towards Kara now as Natasha considers then. The exact kind of black sucking might gave her a clue as to just what exactly yanked htem all up. Kara Zor-El repeats the pose order btw for organization's sake :) npcs (if any), Kara, Natasha, Alex, Candi, Lady B Alex Summers rubs his neck while eying Kara warily. "Geez, lady. I've never seen a super strong cheerleader before. Well, there was that one time that.." He shakes his head. "..nevermind." Since he was in the DR, he was already in uniform. He takes off his coat and casually hands it to Candi. It wasn't much, but it would help. He then turns to look at Nat. "Agent Romanova...do you have any idea what's going on. S.H.I.E.D. conducting some sort of experiment?" He pauses. "Not that I really expect you to answer if they are." He looks around. "Looks like something out of a child's storybook." He comments. Candi drops the bubble, and it goes bouncing across the ground harmlessly as she races over to give Alex an inappropriate hug! "Are you okay? What's going on? Where are we? I got stole right out of the bathroom! Haley was pounding on the door telling me to hurry up and..." She looks around at the setting, "Holy shit! I'm dying! I must have passed out and hit my head or something!" Lady Blackhawk shakes her head. "I thought I might have been drugged, but I think something else is going on. We have three people staring blankly at Supergirl as if she was some nobody...and I don't recognize any of the three. I'd bet none of you are in Oracle's files. Which means...we ain't in Kansas, Toto." Kara Zor-El looks around. "Speaking of child's storybooks..." She watches Candi run over to hug Alex, then takes off her cape. "Before any more suds leave and this would be .... Really.... really not child-friendly." she says as she tries to put the cape over Candi. Then looks back at Natasha. "It was really weird, whatever that black 'thing' was... I mean.... there was nothing. Looked at it with every range of the electromagnetic spectrum..." she says, then looking over at Zinda. "And it was like... nothing was there. Wasn't like a black hole either, at least those show some residual radiation... gravitational fluxes.... stuff like that." She looks around again, looking back at Alex. "And I'm not a cheerleader." Not that she wouldnt like to be one. Another good reason to go to college. If they ever get out of here. "Look, sorry about the grabbing you thing. But you did shoot first. How about we all try to say where we were specifically. I mean... I was flying over Metropolis and-" And that's when you hear stomps coming out from the forest remains. Two rows of 'men' in armor. The odd thing - they seem flat in the middle, like playing cards. Each of them wielding weapons - swords, halbards, spears. They walk around the lot of the assorted heroes from different worlds then stop. "By order of the Queen, you are to escort us to the palace!" Natasha whirls over, and both her guns are up in her hands then over as if by magic. Her eyes narrow to thin slits then. To shoot the cards and waste ammunition.. Her hands clench over to fists then as she goes over to the side, "Oh, and does God Save Her?" Natasha's hands up in front of her in what would be an Akido defensive stance, warily circling over to one side then, eyeing Zinda over with a 'this sort of thing happen to you a lot' routine in her green eyes as they flashed. Alex Summers looks over at Natasha. "Relax. If they wanted to harm us, she would have by now." He points at Kara. He then frowns. "I didn't mean to shoot you. I was working in a battle simulator, and you sort of materialized right as I shot. Sorry." He shakes his head. "This is all so crazy. The lady dressed like a dominatrix is right. It feels like Oz or something here." He looks at Candi and then comments, "I was training, there was this black vortex thing, I shot at it, and these tendrils came out and then I was here. Wherever here is. Everyone is trying to make sense out of this, but they are all experienced, some might even say jaded. Candi isn't an experienced hero, she hasn't been yanked out of her bathrub to alien dimensions before. She hasn't even imagined alternate dimensions! Despite this being her death rattle, she doesn't fight as the cheerleader wraps her cape around her. "I'm too young to die! Wake up! Wake up Candi! Come on!" She screws her eyes shut as the cards race forward, "Come on Candi! Wake up!" She peeks with one eye, "Oh god! It's not working!" So, if she is going to die anyway...she tries to gangtackle Alex, putting the mega smooch on him. Lady Blackhawk frowns, glancing at Natasha...who has a gun. That probably means she doesn't have high level superpowers. "The Red Queen, I assume. I'd rather not see any heads come off today." She's regarding the playing cards, but not shooting at them. Yet. Candi panicking? Sorry, Alex, YOU get to deal with the upset kid. Kara Zor-El look at Candi freaking out, then at the cards. "Um..." She looks at Natasha. "You don't know these guys, right?" Then at Zinda, "Just checking if it's okay to... yknow." she makes a little whooshing motion with her hand as if that describes it. The guards direct their weapons at the heroes. The Red Guard leader repeats, "Come peacefully or you will be taken by force. Her Majesty commands it!" Natasha glances over at the guard, and the next word that comes out of her mouth probably makes Alex spittake. "I -prefer- to be the one taking others by force." At that point, she goes to fire a burst over from her Widow's Bite aimed at the face of one guard, and her other shocker aimed over at the ... paper ... of another, trying to set it on fire! Alex Summers catches Candi in his arms when she leaps into them. He squeaks a little when she kisses him and he wasn't sure, but he could have sworn he felt tongue. The comment by Natasha would have definitely gotten his attention, if he wasn't fighting with a hundred pound mutant teenager. "Candi, this is very inappropriate! I am your teacher!" Setting her firmly on the ground he says, "Remember your training. We've got issues right now." He turns away, his body already tensed for combat. "No friend's of ours." He comments before aiming a blast for the guard who spoke. "Supergirl, was it? Now would probably be a good time to use that strength of yours." Candi tries her best to give poor Alex a kiss worth dying for. But he doen't act like a dream Alex at all, and she should know! She drops back to the ground and looks at the cards, at the other people, none of whom she knows, and says "This is the weirdest dream ever! I don't even like Alice in Wonderland! And...damnit! Am I dead or on drugs or what?" Frustrated at the total lack of Alex nookie before death, she stomps towards the cards, tugging the cape about her as a long skirt since Alex's jacket covers all the important stuff up top, even if she hasn't zipped it up. "Take me to the Queen of Hearts, me and that bitch need some tea!" Sadly, Candi's 'surrender' is a little late. Lady B tries shooting a playing card. In the heart, of course. Not that it's likely to have any effect, but she might as well *try* it. It's all the Gothamite really has right now. Natasha's Widow's bite is...mentally remarked on. Neat toy. Candi's surrender might have been effective. That is, if one of them wasn't already burning and screaming how he's burning. It's really disturbing - the guy is made of both paper and flesh, so it's less out of a Disney cartoon and more out of a horror movie how it's happening. Same for the bullet that is shot at the other one - it injures one of the Card Guards, but obviously not fatal, since... they're still playing cards after all. Several of them charge to attack the two women with weapons. Alex advises Kara to use some of that superstrength, but Kara has a different idea. Supergirl purses her lips and blows at the cards. What might be seen as a bit more startling for everyone who's not Lady Blackhawk, what comes out is more like localized hurricane force winds, sending the guards flying all over the place like a ... well... like a deck of cards. At least that one guard has his fire put out now. The torrent of superbreath goes on until they've been blown clear out of the area. A pause, and Kara looks over at Alex. "I thought that would be a little more efficient." She smiles and shrugs a little. However, the smile is short-lived, as the whole ground shakes at that point. One pound ... and another. Remember the scene from Jurassic Park? With the T-Rex? Yeah. It feels like that. And away goes the Kryptonian girl's smile, still looking over at Alex. "I'm guessing that isnt good?" Blow. Blow /hard/. There's a whiff then as the remainder of the cards are blown down like a falling house, and Natasha goes to take her pistols out again as she glances over at Zinda, "Save your bullets, or aim for the fleshy bits." They don't have many clips after all.. "Flame seems more effective." Assuming there's a second group. Then glances over at Alex. "I see the children you have wtih you are showing the finest examples of a private education." For a moment, Alex is speechless as he looks at Kara. If she could blow out like that, imagine if she sucked IN...he shakes his head to clear such thoughs as he comments in awe. "What the fu..lady, what are you? I've never seen a mutant like you before." And he's seen a LOT. He looks over at Natasha and frowns. "She's never seen anything like this before. Lay off." His voice is low and ice cold. Talk about Alex all you want, mess with his kids and you're cruising for a bruisng. Then the ground rumbles and he stumbles forwards slightly. He shakes his head to Kara. "Probably not." Sensing that this could get bad, he spreads his legs apart slightly and simply...stands there. A faint yellow glow surrounds his body as the X-man begins to actively absorb whatever energy there is to be found in this place. Thing sounded big. Means it was time to power up a little. Candi was all prepared to go along with the dream, but once again her subconscious refuses to make nice. No soooner was she marching off to join the little card men so they could walk her to the next phase of her dream than they were all blown away like so many tufts of a dandelion by Supergirl. Supergirl the cheerleader, who is friends with the dominatrix...and where did her subconscious drag up russian ladies in PJs packing heat? It is all so strange. "Alex! Tell me that this isn't real please. This is all too weird to be real. Did you drug me and put me in the danger room as some sort of test. Fail me okay. Just make all this stop." She clutches at the superskirt to keep the superbreath from superstripping it off of her. Kara Zor-El flies up a bit. "Alex, is it? Tell her it's really okay?" She peers at the forest, but for some reason can't see through the trees at what's approaching. That's odd. X-ray vision, telescopic vision? Doesn't seem to help. "Look I'll go take care of this then we're going to find this Queen - maybe she's the one who brought us here, wherever this is." Before letting anyone say anything, she flies straight into the forest. Then there's a roar. Followed by a sound of some sort of blast. Followed by Supergirl being hurtled OUT of the forest, buffeted by some sort of flames. She falls into the ground and pretty much skids along the ground, making a deep trench in it before groaning. "Okay..... that... hurt a lot actually." She even seems to be bruised and a little toasty from whatever she encountered beyond the treeline. And that's when you can all see what it was. Looks sort of like a giant dragon. The jaws that bite, the claws that catch, with eyes of flame. What wasnt said in the poem though is it also seems to breathe magical flames. Or American ladies in weird uniforms...packing heat. "Okay. What the heck is that?" Something strong enough to beat on Supergirl? Zinda ducks behind a tree, looking for the creature. Hey. She's squishy...ah, there it is. "Oh brillig." Yes. She did say 'brillig' not 'brilliant'. She's in...crazy dream world. Except that Zinda is sure this IS real. Somehow. Natasha glances over at Candi, and takes one look at the dragon. Where's Iron Fist when you need him!? She tosses one of her Widow's Bites over to Zinda, her firing shots with her pistol aimed up at the eyes. " I believe it's time we beat a strategic withdraw?" Yelling at Candi, "Toss up more of those Jelly Babies into it's face to blind it! We'll set up Havok for a blast at it's flank while it's blinded!" Alex Summers turns and grabs Candi by the face. "I really need you to listen to me now. This is real. Somehow we've been sucked into some sort of alternate dimension. I know it's hard to take in, but I need you to get on the same page with us. Jellybean...remember when I spoke about how some missions, no matter how much you train, you will never be ready for? This is one of those times." When the dragon breaks the treeline, he turns to face it. "Do what Agent Ramanova says, then check on Supergirl." He looks over at Tasha and nods, closing his hands into fists which begin to glow a bright yellow. "Widow, make the call. I'll fire on your mark." Lady Blackhawk catches the Widow's Bite. She glances at Natasha, nods to her...and she's used odd weapons before. This isn't quite like something Batgirl might lend her, but it's...something. "Strategic withdrawal makes sense...or maybe it has a specific weakness. Supergirl, try freezing it!" Candi starts tearing up when Alex grabs her face and tells her it is real. She would much rather have had him said it wasn't real. "No. I don't remember you telling me that. It sounds more like Robo-Summers!" She looks over at the pajama woman, then starts launching bubbles at the face of the Jabberwock. "It's a poem. And I don't have no vorpal blade and no snicker snack!" Her bubbles vary in size as she launches them, sending small ones, large ones, trying to see if the thing is attracted to any different size more than another. Lady Blackhawk and Natasha each take more strategic positions, and start to formulate a plan that's better than Kara's 'fly in there and punch it' plan. Candi starts sending bubbles of all sizes at the Jabberwock (for that is what it is) which, although it doesn't hurt the beast, does indeed annoy it as it starts swatting and slashing and biting at the bubbles. When Zinda makes the suggestion to Kara, she pushes herself up a bit out of the trench she was plowed into, wincing a bit. "Yeah...." then blows again at the jabberwock. But this time, the 'superbreath' isn't like the last time - it has a chill to it. While the Jabberwock is angrily swatting and attacking the bubbles, it starts freezing. By the time it realizes what's happening, it's already half-frozen, and becoming encased in a block of ice, when Kara finally stops using her freeze breath on it (just how many different powers does that girl have, anyway?). But it still seems like it's alive in there, and its eyes are still aflame. It could break free at any moment! Natasha fires up electric stingers at what passes for the 'eyes' of the beast, and alternates with shots of her pistol, firing over at whatever seesm to be vulnerable extremities - joints, wing membranes, any fleshy bits. Moreso to annoy it and keep it from running then, hoepfully to give an opening to Havok to blast it then, her ducking over to the side and then going to get behind another tree for cover.. Grabbing one of the fallen cards swords to test the weight of it in her hands. Alex Summers waits until Natasha and Zinda clear out of his target area. Then, he slams both hands forwards as twin beams become one huge blast surrounded by halos of energy. He didn't have to worry about holding back, or be afraid to use too much power. He just let it flow out of him unchecked along his arms. It's going to cause a very big bang. Ah, so that's how it works. Zinda gives the Widow's Bite a try, sending even more zapping electricity towards the Jabberwocky. Freezing it did, at least, slow it down. And then Alex...does whatever he does best, apparently. She makes SURE she's not in the way of that. With the super breath and the Havoc blasting, Candi slacks up on the bubbles, holding a large bubble about six feet across in place to use as either shield or weapon if all the big dogs don't put the Jabberwocky down. "This is crazy! There is no way we can be in Alice in Wonderland!" While Natasha and Zinda use the Widow Kisses against the frozen Jabberwock (ice being an okay conductor of electricity) it temporarily keeps the beast from escaping. Out of the sky, though, comes a couple of large birds with razor sharp talons and beaks! One grabs Natasha and flies back up with her! The other dives at Candi and Kara, but the bubbles get in the way and it backs up in the air, making a caw and clacking sound as it flaps. Then Alex slams his hands together, causing an IMMENSE plasma blast of concussive energy at the frozen beastie... shattering it into a million pieces! The jabberwock is dead. The shockwave also startles one of the Jubjub birds, though, causing it to drop Natasha, who hits the ground - at a point before it would be fatal, but she does hit her head and is knocked out! Alex's hands continue to smoke and smoulder even after his attack. He looks at the Jabberwock and then at the rest of his companions. "No telling what might come at us next. I think we need to find some shelter for now. Tackle this Red Queen issue once we're rested." Candi launches huge bubbles to block the swooping birds, trying to hit the one that nabbed Pajama Woman! "Let her go you..." Before she can even finish her threat, the bird releases the sleepytime hero, and Candi tries to launch a bubble under the woman to help cushion the blow, but it is too late, so instead of saving her, she bounces a big pink bubble off of Natasha's knocked out form a moment after her fall. "Where is shelter? I don't think anyplace is going to be safe! This is like, nightmare Alice and Wonderland and Oz! I bet those trees are full of flying monkeys and eyeball snatching crows!" She rushes towards the stranger, weilding a fresh bubble as her own portable cover as she stoops to check on the knocked out woman. "She's alive! Get those birds!" Lady Blackhawk frowns...and changes back to her gun, as the birds aren't grounded, and shoots the one going after Candi. Well, tries to. She makes sure that Candi isn't in her line of fire. (Kara? Doesn't matter if she hits HER, so she doesn't worry about it). The bullet hits the jubjub bird, and it squawks and spins around, then hits the ground. If only Alice had a gun instead of a Vorpal sword, that story would probably have been a lot less scary. Meanwhile the other one who's stunned squawks and clacks, then dives at Zinda. At which point a pair of twin red hot beams shoot out from Kara's eyes at the bird's tailfeathers. The bird screeches loudly and flies off as fast as it can, tailfeather's burning and leaving a cloud of smoke in its wake. Kara's eyes stop glowing red. "Yeah... I definitely think we should go before anything else crazy ha-" As if on queue, Kara's suddenly sucked underground, leaving nothing behind. Even odder.... Natasha's gone too.